I only have experience with IM and can't speak to the others you are comparing with, but we did IM a few years ago. My son is high functioning mildly autistic. He had trouble with verbal processing (slow) and motor skills. He also had impulse control issues in social situations. He was 8 at the time we used IM. His receptive verbal processing improved dramatically, his motor skills also improved. His impulse control was an occasional problem, so it was very difficult to measure improvement. I thought IM was time and money well spent. We, like you had an OT nearby who was trained in IM and it was easily available to us. There was a clinic near here that did IM training for ADHD kids from an entire large school district on contract. They saw great results working on attention and impulse control and had a contract for a couple of years before the district took it in-house and got their own OTs certified and doing the therapy. Just one more side of the coin to consider.

:iagree: With the others who say start with an IQ score. It will give you more information. Now that you know how far "behind" he is. The next step is to figure out why. You want to know if there are areas that are holding him back or if he is struggling across the board. The IQ test will tell you that. Once you have that information, then you may still need more information :001_smile: Hang in there. This can be a long process by you are on the right road. Again, once you find what areas are a problem, you will want to know why. Your tester should be able to help steer you in the right direction. There could be some therapies that could dramatically improve his learning. For example vision therapy if he isn't visually processing information, the list of options is long. Knowledge is power here. The more you learn the more specifically you can address what is causing his learning delays.

We enjoyed Redwall too. We also really liked the Dealing with Dragons series that was mentioned, but it is a higher reading level. The Gregor books are on the easy side, the Percy Jackson series is fantastic, probably the ones my son "just couldn't put down". I don't thing any of them took more than 24 hours. The Eragon series is good, but not what I'd call great. We like Nancy Farmer, The Sea of Trolls and its sequel The Land of Silver Apples. She mixes a lot of historical fiction into her fantasy.

When I pulled my son out of ps at the beginning of sixth grade he tested into TT pre-algebra. Math was his weakest subject in school (he got Bs). We didn't use TT, we found all other curriculums he tested at grade 6 and we placed him there. I'll never be convinced that TT is rigorous enough for someone wanting to compete in the outside world. However, I won't deny if your child is struggling with math, it can be a great place to go to teach them at a pace they can keep up with. HSing is all about choice!

You'll get more response to this question on the high school board. There are more people there that have "been there done that" :001_smile:

My son started this series when he was 10 and it was one of the most violent things he had ever read at the time. He had read three of the Harry Potters at that point. I would not have let him read them any younger although his reading level was certainly high enough. We have always struggled with the issue of finding books that are interesting, anywhere near his reading level and still age appropriate. Now that he is almost 12, it is much easier, but at 9 and 10 when he was already reading at a high school level, it was terrible!

I haven't used the Life Science book yet, I am planning on it next year and have looked through it a little. I am a Christian, but not of the young earth philosophy and am frustrated by how much BJU pushes their religious views in their science where it could be skipped. The good part is that I have so far found it easy to jump many references, skip the "bible" activities and discussion questions and counter the philosophy with my ds. I'm a bit nervous about the Life Science book though. I looked at the Science Explorer series and found it far below BJU in content level though and was disappointed because I considered switching. Right now I'm thinking I will switch at the 9th grade Physical Science level when PH has a more substantial text. I may do that in 8th grade. For 7th I haven't found anything better than BJUs life science yet. :glare: Have you looked at or has anyone else looked at the PH books that have Life, Earth and Physical Science in one book. They can be found at http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ16f&filter_161=&filter_423=24902&filter_422=&filter_424=&filter_281=&filter_425=&programFilterTypeList=161%2C423%2C422%2C424%2C281%2C425&PMDbSiteid=2781&PMDbSolutionid=6724&PMDbSubSolutionid=&PMDbCategoryid=814&&PMDbProgramID=13121 I wondered how these compare, but I haven't seen them in person or found any messages on these boards about them. Debbie

My AS kid is very visual and not an auditory learner at all. I think this is the biggest thing I have to keep in mind as I choose materials. I didn't start homeschooling until he was older, so I don't have specific suggestions for a little one, but we are going to try math-u-see next year. My son is an exceptional reader and we make sure he can always put his eyes on words or pictures, lots of book centered curriculum. We use almost no workbooks because small motor is an issue and writing is torture and that is very common for AS kids. I let him do a lot of verbal answers and have a lot more direct interaction with me than his younger sister requires. We constantly want to be in his world and bring him into ours. This isn't really an issue anymore, but we never give him a chance to slip back away. I don't know if any of that helps or makes sense, but it is my criteria for picking curriculum rather than the specific curriculum choices. Debbie

I know it isn't very popular to say on a homeschooling board, but the public schools could help you. Your son is still young enough for Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) programs. Contact the local schools and request an evaluation. Make a phone call and find out who you need to talk to and if they don't schedule an evaluation with you on the phone, put the request in writing and mail it to them. IF (and that is a big IF) your district has a good ECSE program, they will identify your child's weaknesses, provide OT and speech in a preschool setting, probably 4 half days per week. They can also provide home visits from the teacher where she will work with your son in your house and you can watch and learn some techniques for teaching him. This is a great way to get some free OT and speech and some ideas for working with your son. With his delays, you can't expect him to progress at the rate of your other children. He can still learn and do great things. You will need some help learning how to work with him and getting the services he needs. The schools may not be much help at all, but everything they do is free. It is a great place to start. Our local schools have an awesome ECSE program. The teachers, OT & Speech therapist are the best you can get. Just because they work with him 16 hours/week doesn't mean you can't still work with him at home and it doesn't mean you have to send him to public school for the rest of his life. Just take what you need and learn what you can, and leave when you are ready :001_smile: Debbie

While I am a big fan of the BJU science and plan to use it next year, I hardly see it as the only choice for high school. You might bet a better response to this question if you post it on the high school board though. There are many great choices in secular science books. If you want a homeschool "curriculum" it may be true the choices are slimmer, but I think many high schoolers begin using high school or college text books for their students. Biology does come before chemistry usually due to the math required for chemistry. Depending on what chemistry you choose, it may require as much as Algebra II for math background. Debbie

I have an 11.5 yr old who is a reluctant writer. I am no expert, but I'll share my plan :001_smile:. My ds writes every day. We use Wordsmith Apprentice right now. I don't criticize anything he writes with this. I might tell him if he hasn't completed the assignment by the rules stated, but otherwise, I just encourage, laugh (he likes to be funny), and try to make this as enjoyable as possible. In addition, we do BJU English 6. Each chapter switches back and forth between grammar and writing. These writing assignments are more substantial and I give him all the time and support he needs but then I do grade and offer constructive comments on these papers. He has done great with this format and both his willingness to write and the quality of his writing have improved a lot this year. I guess what I'm saying, is give lots of writing practice that is free of critique to encourage him to put words onto paper. Then give separate assignments that have known standards where he puts out his best work and you can help him improve it. Debbie

I agree with everything Laurie already told you. I would get testing done. The reasons that I would test are to gain more information about what is going on and from that to learn how to best best help your child. If you feel you get test results that are inaccurate or unhelpful - disregard them. Go somewhere else and get another opinion. You are never locked into their opinions on diagnosis or treatment. They are just opinions. I would start with the schools. If you have good schools in your area, you may be able to get a good assessment for free. If they are not helpful, either because they do a poor evaluation, or because they are not worth battling to get an evaluation, then move on to the private sector. Ask around at church, coop, other friends with kids. You will find people who have kids with ADD, autism, dyslexia or whatever who are happy with a developmental psychiatrist in the area (hopefully). Get testing done there and find out what you are dealing with. Knowledge is power. Once you know what your son's challenges are, you can search for the best tools to help him overcome those challenges and work around those that remain. I wish you the best in your journey! Debbie

We're planning to do BJU Life Science next year for 7th and then use their Physical Science for 8th too. I think it looks like a great 8th grade option and I really like the BJU science. Debbie

My ds with dysgraphia is really enjoying (well comparatively speaking) Wordsmith Apprentice. Ds is 11 not 18, so I don't know how relevant the topics would seem, but I think it would work. It bases off writing for a newspaper and includes a variety of writing including the comics. The writing pieces are very doable and for the longer assignment he does them on the computer. We are planning to go to Jump In next year. I don't know which level would work better for your son, but they are both more "fun" writing programs. Debbie

I too have an extremely bright son with issues. He is very visual and learning just by listening is very difficult. He reads SOTW to himself, he gets so much more from it that way. We do have read aloud time every day and he really enjoys that. Right now we are reading Mara, Daughter of the Nile. I do have to check in more to make sure he is comprehending everything and picking out some of the finer points of the story than if he were reading it himself. We enjoy and learn during read aloud times, but I don't use it for base curriculum information. Spines are always read silently or at least where he can read with me. It just helps him understand and remember much more! I don't consider it lazy, I consider it teaching to his learning style. Thats the whole advantage of homeschooling! :D Debbie

I bought LoF for reinforcement because my son's greatest academic strength is reading. He learns from reading and remembers everything he reads. By putting math into story format, I thought it would be enjoyable and memorable for him because it is playing to his strength. Debbie

:lurk5:

:lurk5:

I used BJU Science 6 this year and just loved it. I haven't looked at the lower levels, but I would think there is a good chance you could use the science 2 and combine them, you'd have to look at it and see if your 8 year old has already covered what is there at that depth. I definitely needed the TM for 6th grade. There was a lot there. Extra demonstrations every day - not that I did them all, but they were great options. There were discussion questions, lots of ideas. It was most valuable TM I had this year. I loved the program for its combination of hands on learning and book study. For my ds's level it was just the right mix. I don't know about the younger levels, but we had a lot of fun in science this year and ds learned a lot too. I couldn't ask for more. I think he came away liking science much more than he did when he started. My younger daughter was jealous too! Debbie

The conversation around here goes Mom "Aren't you done with math yet?" ds "almost" Mom "Are you still working on the first lesson?" ds "no" Mom "ok, how many have you done? two?" ds "Well, I'm on the third, you see Fred was..." Its a terrible problem when you just can't get your day started because math never ends :lol:. My ds has hated math his entire life. Now he just won't stop doing it. Not only does he do it, he gets it. He can do the bridges (tests for non-LoF people) even after cramming a weeks work into two days. He did the first book in less than a month. It has been great! Debbie

Ooh, I have to vote for loy-yer. I have always made fun of my dh who is the only one I know who says law-yer. He was raised on a farm and I always thought that was just part of his rural twang. Debbie

We are enormous fans of the book. While the movie was ok, it didn't follow the plot of the book well at all. There were characters left out, characters added and the ending changed, along with many parts in between. My kids were driven crazy by it. I think we all enjoyed the movie, but it didn't live up to the book at all and was frustrating if you are a true fan of the book. Debbie

I can't offer you a program to get the rules of writing into his head. Rules are the part my son does do. Getting him to put thoughts on paper is the challenge because of his dysgraphia. I wondered though, because you mentioned dysgraphia, if you have your son type instead of write. I know that has helped mine immensely. Even exercises from his LA workbook are typed on the computer if he prefers. The biggest thing this allows is for him to focus on what he is writing instead of the act of writing. It also allows him to do more writing than he would otherwise. We try to do writing twice/day 30 minutes each. (my ds is 11 and in 6th grade) Debbie

I gave my ds who is autistic spectrum 1 mg of melatonin to help him get to sleep for years. He now only takes it on nights he has trouble going to sleep. Yes, we did do this on the advice of the pediatric neurologist. Our pediatrician agreed it was safe way of helping a non-sleeper. Kids on the autistic spectrum often have major sleep issues and this was a major life saver for us and for him. Getting proper rest really improved his nervous system's ability to calm itself and start the day on an even keel. Debbie

Today has been the worst I have ever experienced for daytime Server Busy messages. Great sadness. Debbie